The McHenry County Health Department concurs – you should have your private well water tested annually

If you check out the McHenry County Health Department
Website, you'll see they agree; you should have your well
water tested annually.

In this blog site, we’ve tried to warn about the importance of maintaining your well. Private well maintenance is important because, as a private well, you can’t count on a city or village public works department to take care of your well. It’s your well and it’s your problem.

If you don’t take care of your private well the well equipment – the well pump, the well motor, the well tank – these and other parts of the equipment can breakdown and leave you without access to fresh water. Additionally, without private well maintenance, you may find that you and your family, and your children, are drinking and bathing in unhealthy water.

Well, we’re not the only ones passing along these warnings. The McHenry County Health Department’s (MCHD) website echoes our warnings. The website points out that you should “Have your water tested annually.”

The MCHD warns about checking that your well cap is tightly secured and sealed to avoid contaminants, such as “surface water, vermin …, fertilizers, herbicides, pets.”

As the MCHD points out, “Contaminated drinking water many not always look, taste or smell differently than safe drinking water.” And, as the website continues, if your private well is contaminated, a cleanup is not an easy, or inexpensive, proposition.

Though contaminated water doesn’t always smell, taste or look bad, when water has a strange odor, taste or appearance, that is a sign that there might be a problem with your well water. If you see “particles in water,” have it checked. But, really, you shouldn’t wait until a problem is apparent.

The best bet is to have your water checked, as mentioned above and in the MCHD website, annually.

Testing your well water will look for bacteria, nitrates, and inorganic and organic materials in the water. As the MCHD website states in its “DO’S AND DON’TS …’ section, “DON’T assume your well water is safe to drink.”

There are laboratories that will test your private well water at reasonable prices. The MCHD will also test your water. You can contact the following government offices in McHenry County where you can bring samples of your private well water for testing:

• Algonquin Township Office, 3702 Route 14, Crystal Lake (847) 639-2329
• Door Township Office, 1039 Lake Street, Woodstock (815) 338-0125
• McHenry County Dept of Health, 2200 N Seminary Ave, Woodstock (815) 334-4585
• McHenry County Dept of Health, 100 N Virginia St, Crystal Lake (815) 459-5151
• McHenry Township Office, 3703 Richmond Road, McHenry (815) 385-5605
• Nunda Township Office, 3703 Richmond Road, McHenry (815) 459-4011
• City of Marengo, City Hall, 134 E. Prairie Street, Marengo (815) 568-7112
• Harvard Police Department, 201 W Front Street, Harvard (815) 943-4431
• Richmond Township Office, 7812 South Route 31, Richmond (815) 678-0077
• Grafton Township Office, 10109 Vine Street, Huntley (847) 669-3328
• McHenry Analytical Water Laboratory, 4314 W Crystal Lake Rd A, McHenry (815) 344-4044

The MCHD website is located at: https://www.co.mchenry.il.us/county-government/departments-a-i/health-department/environmental-health/private-water-supply